Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

The Stabat mater, one of the most remarkable works of sacred music, masks the entire musical output of this composer, who was cut down in his prime at the age of 26. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi or Jean-Baptiste Pergolesi, whose real name was Draghi, was the son of an agronomist from Pergola, in the Marche region. He was born several miles away in Jesi, in the province of Ancona, on January 4, 1710. The only child in a family that had lost all three of its siblings at an early age, he suffered from poor health, but showed an early aptitude for music, and began learning theory with the choirmaster of Jesi Cathedral, Francesco Santi. His progress on the violin with Francesco Mondini and the pension granted by the Pianetti family, the Marquis Carlo Maria and Bishop Giuseppe, enabled him to study at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo in Naples, where, between 1723 and 1732, his violin teacher was Domenico De Matteis, his composition teacher was Gaetano Greco and his successive choirmasters were Francesco Durante and Leonardo Vinci, not the painter and scientist but the great composer of operas such as Artaserse. This proved a fruitful period for the young "Jesi" Pergolesi, who became first violin and teacher, seeing the birth of the tenor anthem O salutaris hostia (1729), the cantata Questo è il piano (1731), the oratorio La Morte di San Giuseppe (1731) and the sacred drama La Conversione di San Guglielmo Duca d'Aquitania (1731), which crowned his studies in style. In 1729, he was even appointed director of the best students' group, which performed regularly. His studies in polyphonic art, religious music and Neapolitan opera quickly bore fruit over the following years, despite an initial failure with the opera Salustia (1732), whose public presentation at the Teatro San Bartolomeo was delayed by the death of castrato Niccolò Grimaldi, who was to have played the lead role. His famous replacement, Gioacchino Conti aka "Giziello", was unable to erase Grimaldi's memory. No matter, for the composer triumphed with Lo Frate 'nnamorato, a comedy sung in Neapolitan dialect, premiered at the Teatro dei Fiorentini on September 27. The same year, he was appointed Kapellmeister to Prince Ferdinando Colonna Stigliano, Esquire to the Viceroy of Naples, which ensured him a regular income. The earthquake that struck the city led him to compose two votive offerings for the church of Santa Maria della Stella, a solemn Mass for ten voices and double choir, and solemn Vespers for five voices. In 1733, Pergolesi returned to secular music. Theopera seria Il Prigionier superbo premiered at the Teatro San Bartolomeo on August 28, with what was to be the greatest success of his lifetime, the interlude La serva padrona, whose revival at the Académie royale de musique in Paris in 1752 triggered the historic episode of the "Querelle des Bouffons", dividing the defenders of French music, represented by Jean-Philippe Rameau, and the advocates of Italian influence and opera buffa, led by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Since then, theintermezzo has acquired its letters of nobility and, as an independent work, has never left the stage, giving rise to famous recordings. The same process was repeated on October 25, 1734 with theopera seria Adriano in Siria, based on a libretto by Métastase, with castrato Caffarelli and the bouffe interlude Livietta e Tracolo, which also stole the show! The musician was appointed Kapellmeister to Marzio Domenico IV, Duke of Maladdoni, who introduced him to Rome and commissioned a Mass in F major to be performed with great pomp in the church of San Lorenzo on May 16, 1734. However, his health declined, as did his morale, after the failure of his famous work L'Olimpiade, premiered at Rome's Teatro Tordinona during Carnival in January 1735. What was to become one of the most beautiful operas of the 18th century, with its aria "Se cerca, se dice", was not only re-evaluated and widely performed throughout Europe, but also parodied by Cimarosa(I due supposti conti, 1784), a testament to its popularity. He premiered the opera Il Flaminio at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples, then retired to the Capuchin monastery in Pozzuoli, where he wrote the Salve Regina and the magnificent Stabat mater, which he revived and adapted many times, ensuring his posterity. Dying of tuberculosis on March 17, 1736, Pergolesi also left instrumental works such as the beautiful Violin Concerto in B-flat major and a Concerto for flute and orchestra in G major, but many of the pieces attributed to him because of his fame are apocryphal.

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